Antiyal

This Syrah-led blend reflects the sum of its parts. The nose is moderately intense, with berry and cassis aromas along with herbs and spice. It’s full and structured, but not a bulldozer, and the flavors of baked berry, cassis, herbs and chocolate are excellent. Very smooth and heady, with lots of complexity. Drink now through 2016. — 92   Michael Schachner

Price:$40
·         Appellation:Maipo Valley, Chile
·         Production:1,000 cases
·         Importer:Global Vineyard Importers
·         In Magazine:3/1/2013

Neal Martin on Antiyal from the Wine Advocate #204 December 2012

2010  Antiyal Antiyal    93 points
The 2010 Antiyal is a blend of 47% Carmenere, 29% Cabernet Sauvignon and 24% Syrah. It has a very well defined bouquet with blackberry leaf, crushed stone, and limestone. This is very expressive. The palate is medium-bodied with super-fine tannins. It is very well balanced with grace and poise towards the natural, refined blackberry and sea salt tinged finish. This is another beautiful wine from Alvaro. Drink now-2017.

2008  Antiyal  -  93 points
The 2008 Antiyal has a penetrating, vivacious bouquet of blackberry, blueberry, crushed stone, and cedar. The palate is vibrant and beautifully structured with fine minerality. It is tightly wound towards the finish with impressive precision and poise. This is a great Chilean wine. Drink now-2018.

2010  Antiyal Carmenere Viñedo Escorial -   90 points
The 2010 Carmenere Vinedo Escorial is aged in Nomblot concrete egg tanks and sees no oak. It has a natural, minerally bouquet with blackberry leaf, wild strawberry and crushed stone, hints of rosemary and thyme in the background. The palate is medium-bodied with light tannins. There are plenty of crisp blackberry and mineral notes that segue into a linear, very focused, harmonious finish that is precise and long. Not a wine for those seeking big and brawny Chilean Carmenere, but it is utterly refined. Drink now-2016.

2010  Antiyal Kuyen -  88 points
The 2010 Kuyen is a blend of 57% Syrah, 28% Cabernet Sauvignon, 13% Carmenere and 2% Petit Verdot raised for twelve month in a combination of one, two and three year old French oak. It has a refined bouquet of blackberry, wild hedgerow and raspberry leaf. The palate is medium-bodied with light tensile tannin. It is taut and natural; never entertaining the notion of complexity but with a soft, pleasing finish. Drink now-2015.

Note about the winery :
Although I met dozens of winemakers during my time in Chile, meeting with Alvaro Espinoza is the one that sticks in my mind. Having entered many large-scale wineries producing decent, if sometimes predictable wines, Antiyal came as an antidote with its bijou size, biodynamic practices, the alpacas standing guard at the winery and the charismatic winemaker himself. Alvaro actually studied with Telmo Rodriguez and has lived in Bordeaux. His vines cover just 8 hectares, which includes the original single hectare homestead, although he has purchased conjoining land where he has planted some Grenache. I found his wines to be full of character and personality, wines that demonstrated flair and originality that Chile is beginning to show more and more.

Saturday 19 nov, we bottled 29.000 bottels , started early Cleaning the Bottling machine, trying the wine, making sure all is well conected, the first bottles, trying them, chequing all the standards, taste, avoid oxigen in the bottling, we had the visit of Sean and Peter from Yealands, New Zealand, our family too came to help.So we ended at 11:20 pm a long day, but all ok , its like giving one exam a year!!

Tell us what bottle you drunk, where, if you had a nice time, and how the wine was….

Work during spring and beatiful floweres in the vineyards to attract insects We are bottling this Saturday our 2010 wines, lots of work, we will post some photos of bottling on Sunday.

Friends we had a very great Harvest, but one that with us all very tired. You can see some photos of Harvest, crush moving barrels to put new wine in etc in the photo gallery below.

Many thanks to the whole team, Ramon Gonzales, Ramon Sanchez, Ramon Rubio  ( the Ramones) Pablo Yañez and  friends and all who helped, William that came from California, Christian from Colombia.

Well on Monday may 31 we had the visit of Rene Piamonte our biodinamic consultant who comes ones a year to teach us a little each time, so you can see some photos of our farm day, where we made preps, like 503 with camomile flowers, also the 506 with dandelion and also the 505  prep with oak bark, we are happy as Its the first time we make these last three preps locally with our own flowers and products.

Now is the time we put together our compost, with all the left overs from winemaking, the  stems, the skins, and the manure from our own animals, this is the only way we fertilize, so all comes from inside our farms.

We are also now putting in our compost made last year (2009) which has a year, now we are opening the soil and putting the compost in, for afterwords sowing our flowers in between our vines.

The work in the farm never stops.

We are also preparing some orders, very busy labelling and I am happy to tell you we participated in the HONG KONG Vinexpo with the Renaissance des Appellations group and  our friends from Hong Kong , Louise and Stuart showed our wines there. Thanks so much.

Friends hello, its us writing here in our 2010 harvest!! A little shaky at first, but here we are. We started crush on April 20 with a beautiful day harvesting our Cabernet Sauvignon Olivos from around our house.

We have gone on with our Cabernet from Escorial, and some of our Syrah

Fantastic weather, no rain, healthy grapes, a great harvest.